lisle and the Border was common land, until of late years, inhabited only by smugglers and persons of unsettled life. The Scottish parish of Gretna, on the north side of the Sark stream, which there divides the countries, had a population of a like character. After the act of 1754 had shut the Fleet parsons out of shop in London, one of them paid his debts in the prison and advertised his removal to Gretna. Thither he was followed by adventurous couples who failed to obtain the consent of their parents and guardians to their union. At his death a native of the place, known as "Scot of the Brig" (Sark Brig) took up the business. He was succeeded by one Gordon, an old soldier, and Gordon by the celebrated Joseph Paisley. Paisley was succeeded by several rivals, of whom Elliot and Laing were the principals. Mr. Linton, of Gretna Hall, became chief priest after Laing's death, which occurred through cold taken in a journey to Lancaster, in 1826, where he was required as a witness in the prosecution of the Wake. fields for the abduction of Miss Turner. In 1841 we visited Gretna and Springfield to inspect the registers for literary purposes, and found them a mass of loose papers. At that time the larger part of the matrimonial trade was done-for couples arriving on foot-by Mrs. Bailie, and Miss Bailie, her daughter, who kept Sark Bridge toll; the post-chaise weddings going to Mr. Linton, of Gretna Hall, who died but a short time ago. We were permitted by Mr. Linton's daughter to inspect his register, which, unlike the older ones, was a well-written, official-looking volume, but we failed to obtain an interview with that gentleman himself. It seemed he had reason to expect service of a writ about that time, and suspected our purpose there to have reference to it. A residence of three weeks in the neighbourhood caused his absence from home during all the hours of daylight in that time. Peter Elliot, formerly priest, was then an old man.

He had, in his younger days, been a post-boy, but was reduced to the office of" strapper" in a stable at Carlisle. Excess of whiskey on his part, and the more genteel competition of the occupier of Gretna Hall, had driven him out of the marriage trade. But though poor, he was not like Canning's "needy knife-grinder," he had a story to tell-a story of a life which had been concerned in many races and chases over the nine miles between Carlisle and Gretna. To any one fond of listening to adventures, it was a joy to hear him and the old post-boys of the road tell of the beautiful daughters of England, when with whip and spur, and shout, and wild halloo, GENT. MAG. VOL. CCII.

they had carried at the gallop across the border, the pursuing guardian, or jilted lover, or angry father in sight behind, urging on post-boys, who also whipped and spurred and hallooed, but took care never to overtake the fugitives until too late. They were proud to boast of two Lord-Chancellors having been married there; one of whom, Erskine, arrived in the travelling costume of an old lady.

About the year 1794 it was estimated that sixty couples were married annually, they paying an average of 15 guineas each: yielding a revenue of £945 a-year, or thereabout. The form of the certificate was in latter times printed, the officiating priest not being always sufficiently sober to write. Nor when sober was he an adept in penmanship, as the following from the pen of Joseph Paisley may shew:

:

"This is to sartify that all persons that may be concerned that (A.B.) from the parish of (C) and in county of (D) and (E.F.) from the parish of (G) and county of (H), and both comes before me and declay red themselves both to be single persons, and nowe mayried by the forms of the Kirk of Scotland and agreeable to the Church of England, and givne ondre my hand this 18th day of March, 1793."

Joseph Paisley, writer of this, was ori ginally a weaver, at some other time a tobacconist. He was the so-called "Blacksmith," though there is no record that he, his predecessors, or successors, were real blacksmiths. He removed from Gretna to the village of Springfield, half-a-mile distant, in 1791, and attended to his lucra tive employment until his death in 1814.

He was by far the most celebrated of those who, at Gretna, forged the chains of matrimony. He is described as a tall person, and in prime of life, well proportioned; but before he died had grown enormously corpulent, weighing upwards of 25 stone. By his natural enemiesthe parish clergymen-he was said to be grossly ignorant and coarse in his manner; drinking a Scotch pint of whiskey in various shapes of toddy and raw drams in a day. On one occasion he and a companion, named Ned the Turner, sat down on a Monday morning to an anker of strong Cogniac, and before the evening of Saturday they kicked the empty cask out of the door. He was also celebrated for his stentorian lungs and almost incredible muscular strength. He could with one hand bend a strong poker over his arm, and was frequently known to straighten an ordinary horse-shoe with his hands. But he could not break asunder the band of matrimony which he so easily rivetted. Law stamped his

3 A

handiwork with the title of sanctity. Of late the Gretna and Sark Toll marriages had greatly increased in number through the facilities of railway conveyance. The fugitives, when obtaining a start by an express train, could not be overtaken by another, while the ordinary third-class carried away so many customers for cheap marriages from the English parish clergy, that the legislature was invoked, and has enacted that on and after the 1st of January, 1857, no marriage shall be valid in Scotland, unless the parties have both resided in Scotland for the last six weeks next preceding the wedding day.

The Irish Ecclesiastical Commission.The annual report of this commission, just published, shews that 41,690, was appropriated to church works in the year ending August 1, 1856, and of this sum 5,4397. was allotted to the rebuilding of parish churches, 4007. to the erection of district parochial churches, 3,0301. to the enlargement of churches, and the residue to the repair of 1,091 churches, the enclosure of 17 graveyards in which churches had been erected, and the internal painting and cleaning of 77 churches; 5,9927. was received from private contributors, including a sum of 1,000l. lodged by the Rev. Samuel Montgomery for building a chapel of ease in Lower Moville, diocese of Derry; 87 benefices became vacant during the year, consisting of 20 dignities and prebends, and 67 parochial benefices. Instances of malicious injury to churches are reported with regret. The difficulties with which the commissioners have had to contend in providing for the most urgent demands on their funds are likely to be much increased this year owing to a serious defalcation in their funds from the non-receipt of a large portion of the moneys which should have been levied by the collector of rates in the city of Dublin, and the respective boards of guardians and other bodies for the payment of ministers' money, the amount received by the commissioners having been only 4,9397, while they paid away 12,3697., making the sum total paid on this account since the act of 1854, 21,300l. The receipts for the year amount to 140,7467., and the payments to 134,9707., leaving a balance in the bank on the 31st of January, 1856, of 5,7761.

FEB. 9.

The Inquisition.-The following was this day posted on the walls of Rome:

"We, Hyacinthe de Ferrari, Commissary-General of the Holy Roman and Universal Inquisition, &c., declare as follows:

"Whereas Catherine Fanelli, a young

woman of twenty-three years, born in Casalviera, diocess of Sora, residing for several years past at Sezza, has attempted by clever representations to pass herself off as a saint, and has boasted of revelations, visions, apparitions of Jesus Christ and of the holy Mary, and of other pecu liar gifts proceeding from the grace of God; and whereas it is evident from various acts and proofs, as well as from her confession when on trial before the Holy Office, that here is only deceit, boasting, and falsity in the aforesaid revelations, visions, apparitions, and other matters reputed as supernatural and as marks of the peculiar grace of God; in consequence, in execution of the decree of the Holy Office of February 4, 1857, in order to undeceive the public, and remove from the minds of all any belief in her holy character, we notify and declare that the holiness of the above-mentioned Catherine Fanelli is pretended, and accompanied by immoral and false maxims, and that her predictions have been proved to be supposititious; the said woman has therefore been condemned by the Holy Office to twelve years' imprisonment. Let therefore no person in future dare to consider the said Catherine Fanelli in the light of a saint, under the penalty to be established by the most eminent and reverend cardinals, the Inquisitors-General.

"Given at the Chancellerie of the Holy Office of the Vatican, on the 6th of February, 1857.

The Budget.-The Chancellor of the Exchequer began by calling attention to the revenue and expenditure of the current financial year, 1856-57. In the statement he made last year he estimated the revenue of the current year at 71,740,0007.; its actual amount had been somewhat greater-namely, 71,885,000l. The expenditure for 1856-57, including the loan to Sardinia of 1,000,000l., and the vote of credit of 2,000,000l., he had estimated at 82,113,0007, shewing, therefore, a deficiency of 10,373,0007. in the estimated revenue, or, deducting the margin of 2,000,0007., a deficiency of 8,373,000l. In order to cover this deficiency certain loans were effected, which, with the issue of 1,000,0007. of Exchequer-bills, amounted to 7,499,000l. of borrowed money for the year. The power of borrowing money granted to the Government had been limited to 4,000,000, but it had been exercised only to the extent of 1,000.0007., and no further use would be made of that power. The total receipts from revenue, loans, and Exchequer-bills in the year

to

1856-57 amounted to 79,384,000l. The actual expenditure would amount 78,000,0007.,leaving a balance of 1,384,000l. The present year, Sir C. Lewis proceeded to observe, was not a year of ordinary peace expenditure, but a year of extraordinary expenditure; besides certain extraordinary expenses, there would be a loss upon the malt-revenue, owing to the expiration of the war-duty and to drawbacks, amounting to about 1,000,000l., to be deducted from the revenue of the year in consequence of the peace. He then read statistical statements shewing the vast increase in the exports, imports, and shipping of the country, demonstrating the elasticity of its resources, and various calculations, affording an estimate of the expenditure caused by the war, the reve nue derived from war taxation, and the amount added since the war to our funded and unfunded debt. He next entered upon a consideration of the estimated expenditure for the ensuing year, which he calcu lated at 65,474,0007., viz. :

He then gave the details of the principal heads of charge for the present year, premising that, although the saving upon the Army and Navy Estimates compared with those of the last year was already upwards of 17,000,000l., the change from a war to a peace standard could not be made instanter; that some time must be allowed for the effect of the transition. After analyzing the Estimates, and explaining their details, he stated the amount of the debt created by the war, funded and unfunded, at 41,041,000l. Before he proceeded to expound his plan of taxation for the ensu ing year he adverted to the question of direct and indirect taxation, and stated the sums levied upon both species of imposts, which, he thought, bore in a practical manner upon the subject. The total of our direct taxation amounted to 20,700,000l., and that of indirect taxation to 39,850,000Z.; so that the indirect taxation was nearly double the amount of the direct. Claims were made, he remarked, for remissions of indirect taxes. As to the duty on paper, after considering the subject, he did not believe, he said, that the total abolition of that duty would afford to purchasers of books or newspa pers any appreciable benefit, and he there

fore thought the claims for a remission of this duty should be deferred until the public expenditure was less, and the revenue greater. With respect to the duty on fire insurances, which fell exclusively upon realized property, believing that a reduction of it would not be reproductive, he saw no ground for acceding to the proposition for reducing this duty. He should, therefore, confine himself to the taxes imposed or revised during the war. As to the duty on spirits, upon which a permanent duty was imposed during the war, yielding about 1,500,0001, he believed the House would agree that spirits were a legitimate object of taxation, subject to the condition

After

that it should not lead to illicit distillation. He did not, therefore, see any reason for proposing an alteration in the duty on spirits. With respect to malt, the cessation of the war-duty would occasion a loss-of 2,000,0007. upon this article. The next tax was that upon incomes. reciting the history of this tax from the date of its imposition, in 1842, and explaining its present rates, he stated the circumstances under which the words "until the 5th of April next after the ratification of a treaty of peace," which did not appear in the Customs and Excise acts, came to be inserted in the Income-tax act, declaring that he never entertained an idea of asking the House on that ground to continue the tax beyond the exigency of the public service. Looking at the demands upon the revenue owing to the transition from war to peace, to the debt and liabilities created during the war, and to the remission of taxation, he proposed to fix the Income-tax at the original rate of 7d. in the pound, fixed by Sir R. Peel, for three years, upon incomes above 1507. a-year, and at 5d. in the pound upon incomes between 100l. and 150. He proposed to deal in another way with the taxes upon tea and sugar, by adopting a scale of reductions in each case different from that of the existing law, making the abatement slower, and therefore providing for a more gradual diminution of revenue. The total revenue for the ensuing year he estimated at 66,365,0007., which would leave a surplus over the expenditure of 891,000l., viz. :

ties of the next three years were discharged, and the accruing liabilities were met, the entire debt of 40,000,000l. owing to the war would be extinguished in twenty years. He moved a resolution for a vote of 2,000,000l. to pay off and discharge Exchequer-bonds issued in 1854, and payable on the 8th of May, 1857.

FEB. 19.

One of the most destructive colliery explosions on record has occurred at Lund-hill, near Barnsley. While a great number of miners were in the pit, taking their dinner, the inflammable gas ignited, and the explosion was tremendous. At seven o'clock in the evening sixteen men had been drawn up alive, but some of them very badly hurt. In consequence of a vast body of flame issuing from the airshaft, it was deemed necessary to stop up this and the other shafts, as far as possible, by means of coverings of planks and earth. It was thought that some days would elapse before a further search could be made in the mine; in the mean time, it is feared that one hundred and seventy miners have perished! About 350 men and boys were usually employed in the pit; about 190 were down at the time of the explosion. The seam of coal is what is called "fiery;" yet the men were in the habit of using naked candles. Because the ventilation was good, this was thought "perfectly safe."

is used in speaking of having partaken of a dinner of the "just enough and none to spare" kind. It is generally supposed that she came either from the neighbourhood of Middlewich or Nantwich in this county. It does not appear to be positively ascer tained where she was born. Stoke-hall,

a farm-house near Nantwich, is said by some to have been her birthplace. She survived her husband nearly fifty-five years, and was interred in a small chapel now used by the Baptists in Barker-street, Nantwich. There is an ancient building, partly of wood and plaister, at Kinderton, close to Middlewich, there called the Old Hall, at present divided into cottages, and which was the residence of the Minshull family, at least for a time. The date over the door is 1616, and above one of the windows is the following inscription :

The

Savings-banks.-The amount of interest credited to savings banks in the united kingdom in the year ending November 20, 1855, on the capital sums invested with the Commissioners, was £1,091,226. excess paid in by savings-banks beyond the sums drawn out amounted during the year to £146,910, the excess drawn out by the banks beyond the sums paid in to £738,977, the sums paid for purchase of stock, Exchequer-bills, &c., to £7,581,953; the sums received for sale of stock to £7,121,939, and the dividends received by the Commissioners on stock, &c., invested, to £989,407. The amount of principal money received from and interest paid and credited to the trustees of savings-banks and friendly societies on Nov. 20, 1855, was £72,689,404; the amount of principal and interest money paid to the trustees was £36,238,363; and the amount of money, principal and interest, due to the trustees by the Commissioners on the said November 20, 1855, was £36,451,041. The value of the securities held by the Commissioners was £31,137,096. The number of depositors in savings-banks on November 20, 1855, was 1,231,926, and the amount of deposits, £32,248,644. Taking these together with charitable institutions and friendly societies, the number of depositors is raised to 1,304,833, and the amount of deposits to

his labours were rewarded by the discovery of the remains of an ancient temple, which he believed to be that of Dido. After cutting through two layers of flooring, which must have been laid down at lengthened intervals, he came on a most splendid piece of mosaic of many square yards in area, and in which were delineated two heads, each three feet high, supposed to be those of Dido and Juno, besides several graceful Eastern figures, and a number of highly elegant devices and ornaments, equal, it is alleged, to the most beautiful specimens of the art yet brought to light. Mr. Davis has taken every precaution to guard the mosaic from the influence of the weather. It is supposed that the British Government will despatch a vessel to convey it to England, as well as other objects of interest which he has discovered.

GAZETTE PREFERMENTS, &c.

Jan. 24. The Queen has been graciously pleased to give orders for the appointment of the Right Hon. the Earl of St. Germans, C.B., to be an Ordinary Member of the Civil Division of the First-class, or Knights Grand Cross, of the Most Hon. Order of the Bath; and of Colonel his Serene Highness Prince William Augustus Edward of Saxe Weimar, Grenadier Guards, to be an Ordinary Member of the Military Division of the Third-class, or Companions of the said Most Hon. Order.

Her Majesty having been graciously pleased to signify her commands that a medal be granted to all persons, of every ra k and class, who have been engaged in the several expeditions to the Arctic Regions, whether of discovery or search, between the years 1818 and 1855, both inclusive, the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty hereby give notice of the same.

Feb. 5. The Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury have appointed the undermentioned noblemen and gentlemen to be trustees for the formation of a gallery of the portraits of the most eminent persons in British history, viz. :-The Lord President of the Council for the time being, the Marquis of Lansdowne, K.G., the Earl Stanhope, the Earl of Ellesmere, K.G., the Lord Elcho, M.P., the Lord Robert Cecil, M.P., the Right Hon. Sidney Herbert, M.P., the Right Hon. Thomas Babington Macaulay, the Right Hon. B. Disraeli, M.P., Sir Francis Palgrave, Sir Chas. Eastlake, William Smith, esq., and W. H. Carpenter, esq.

The Marquis of Kildare, Sir T. N. Redington, K.C.B., Bonamy Price, esq., and James Gibson, esq., to be Commissioners for enquiring into the Condition of the Queen's Colleges, Ireland.

The Right Hon. Wm. Francis Cowper to be Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education.

Feb. 7. Viscount Castlerosse was this day sworn of Her Majesty's Privy Council.

The Earl of Yarborough to be Lord-Lieut. of the county of Lincoln.

Feb. 9. Charles Henry Darling, esq., to be Capt.-Gen, and Governor-in-Chief of Jamaica.

Sir Alexander Bannerman to be Capt.-Gen. and Governor-in-Chief of Newfoundland.

The Right Hon. W. Monsell to be President of the General Board of Health.

Feb. 10. J. A. Blackwell, esq., to be Consul of Stettin.

Feb. 13. Rear-Admiral Peter Richards, C.B., to be one of the Commissioners of Greenwich Hospital.

The Duke of Rutland to be Lord-Lieutenant of Leicestershire.

Col. G. C. Munday to be Lieut.-Governor of the Island of Jersey.

War-Office, New Appointments.

Sir Benjamin Hawes to be Permanent UnderSecretary of State for Wa".

J. R. Godley, esq., Under-Secretary of the Ordnance.

Sir Henry Storks, K.C.B., Secretary for Military Correspondence-a newly-created office.

Captain Caffin, Naval Director of Artillery, Director of Stores and Clothing.

Mr. Ramsay, Assistant-Director of Stores and Clothing.

Sir Thomas Troubridge, late Director-General of Army Clothing, has been appointed Deputy Adjutant-General at the Horse-Guards.